More on LoLo, the Great Landbridge to Governors Island

A rendering of the proposal shows a major addition to the downtown skyline—Mr. Chakrabarti emphasizes density as a cure to what ails the city's land crunch needs. If we are going to build more land from the waters, might as well fill it up.

The space would fit naturally with the street grid while being girded by parks and open space on the water.

The first step is building bridges to Governors Island and barrier islands to make the land-filling possible.

The project would be developed from the inside out, with land growing from Governors Island toward Manhattan.

Last year, a not-entirely outrageous proposal by urban theorist and Columbia professor Vishaan Chakrabarti was put forward to use landfill to connect Governors Island to Lower Manhattan, creating an entirely new Battery Park City South of sorts. Compared to landfill efforts in Tokyo and other parts of China, the idea is actually incredibly modest. And here is how it could be done.

The really brilliant part is that way the landfill connects existing Lower Manhattan to Governors Island. The real estate angle is the strong feeling that the proximity to – the extension of — Lower Manhattan is what will maximize value. And they did this without compromising the landmarked park space on the Northern end of Governors Island. So it makes for a kind of Central Park green space.

She goes on to discuss the viability of the project and how “dead serious” she and Mr. Chakrabarti are about realizing it in real life. To see how such a thing could take shape, and only in 20 years time no less, check out the attached slideshow.